Conversational/Academic Language Proficiency Distinction
The distinction between BICS and CALP (Cummins, 1979b) was intended to
draw educators’ attention to these data and to warn against premature exit of ELL
students (in the United States) from bilingual to mainstream English-only
programs on the basis of attainment of surface level fluency in English. In other
words, the distinction highlighted the fact that educators’ conflating of these
aspects of proficiency was a major factor in the creation of academic difficulties for
bilingual students. p58

Conversation and composition (Bereiter and Scardamalia)
Bereiter and Scardamalia (1981) have analyzed the problems of learning to
write as problems of converting a language production system geared to conversation
over to a language production system capable of functioning by itself. They
argue that the absence of normal conversational supports makes writing a radically
different kind of task from conversation. Specifically, in writing the
individual must:
+learn to continue to produce language without the prompting that comes from
a conversational partner;
+learn to search his or her own memory instead of having memories triggered
by what other people say;
+plan large units of discourse instead of planning only what will be said next;
+learn to function as both sender and receiver, the latter function being necessary
for revision.

They suggest that the oral production system must be reconstructed to function
autonomously rather than interactively if effective writing abilities are to develop.
Furthermore, they suggest that as mastery increases there is progressive automatization
of lower-level skills (e.g. handwriting, spelling of common words,
punctuation, common syntactic forms) which releases increasingly more mental
capacity for higher-level planning of large chunks of discourse. p64

Thus, the social practice of schooling entails certain ‘rules of the game’
with respect to how communication and language use is typically organized within
that context. In short, in the present context the construct of academic language proficiency
refers not to any absolute notion of expertise in using language but to the
degree to which an individual has access to and expertise in understanding and
using the specific kind of language that is employed in educational contexts and is
required to complete academic tasks. p66

A central implication of the framework in Figure 3.1 for instruction of second
language learners is that language and content will be acquired most successfully
when students are challenged cognitively but provided with the contextual and
linguistic supports or scaffolds required for successful task completion. In other
words, optimal instruction for linguistic, cognitive and academic growth will tend
to move from Quadrant A, to B, and from Quadrant B to D. Quadrant C activities
maybe included from time to time for reinforcement or practice of particular points.
This progression corresponds very closely to the stages that Gibbons (1995, 1998)
observed in her research on classroom discourse in science teaching. She distinguished
three stages:
+Small group work.
+Teacher guided reporting.
+Journal writing.

English language learners (ELLs) employ BIC skills when they are on the playground, in the lunch room,on the school bus, at parties, playing sports and talking on the telephone. Social interactions are usually context embedded. They occur in a meaningful social context. They are not very demanding cognitively. The language required is not specialized. These language skills usually develop within six months to two years after arrival in the U.S.

CALP refers to formal academic learning. This includes listening, speaking, reading, and writing about subject area content material. This level of language learning is essential for students to succeed in school. Students need time and support to become proficient in academic areas. This usually takes from five to seven years. Recent research (Thomas & Collier, 1995) has shown that if a child has no prior schooling or has no support in native language development, it may take seven to ten years for ELLs to catch up to their peers.]

Corson, D. (1997). The learning and use of academic English words. Language Learning, 47(4), 671-718.

Notes:Corson's basic argument is that familiarity with
the Graeco-Latin academic vocabulary of English is
essential to academic success; however, many learners from some sociocultural
backgrounds do not get exposed to this vocabulary
outside school, and have difficulty aquiring this vocabulary inside schools. (p.671)

All other things being equal, students
achieve formal entry to academic institutions largely because
their life experiences outside schools give them widespread informal
entry to the meaning systems valued inside educational institutions (p674)

Academic meaning systems, in particular, have been shaped
by the special culture of literacy over several millennia. They are
the world's most influential meaning systems. In English speaking
cultures, their history has much to do with the development in
Britain ofa rather exclusive culture ofliteracy which later
spread to newly British-founded or -colonized parts of the world.
This culture ofliteracy became institutionalized in formal education,
where high value was placed on the daily use of Latin for all
spoken purposes and on the rigorous study of Greek. It then
became the basis for a greatly enlarged English vocabulary drawn
directly from those languages. (p676)

Academic Graeco-Latin words are mainly literary in their
use. Most native speakers of English begin to encounter these
words in quantity in their upper primary school reading and in the
formal secondary school setting. So the words' introduction in literature
or textbooks, rather than in conversation, restricts people's
access to them. (p677)

Olson, like Vygotsky (1962), reckoned
that "to be literate it is not enough to know the words; one must
learn how to participate in the discourse of some textual community"
(1994, p. 273): People need to know the rules of use to put
words to work. Learning the rules of use comes from talking about
texts whose meaning systems embed the signs to be learned, especially
words that are unfamiliar in form and meaning. (p684)

Evidence confirms that after children's earliest years, their
vocabulary growth is related to the ability to handle greater morphemic
complexity. This development is also associated with
greater language knowledge (Clark & Berman, 1987; Clark,
Hecht, & Mulford, 1986; Hancin-Bhatt & Nagy, 1994). Different
word types and differences in knowledge of morphology affect the
growth of vocabulary. In general, derived words (e.g., driver, happiness)
seem to be acquired later than either inflected words (e.g.,
walking, fastest) or compound words (e.g., lampshade). But polymorphemic
words come even later still. (p688)

Graeco-Latin words in English tend to be opaque, even for
most L11angnage users. For ESL users, they tend to be opaque if
the learners have had no experience with their etymology when
learning English or came from a language background greatly
removed structurally from Latin and Greek. These words also
have a very low frequency of use in most people's everyday discourse.
In summary, the attributes ofGraeco-Latin word difficulty
are as follows: They are usually non-concrete, low in imagery, low
in frequency, and semantically opaque. (p696)

KEY POINT:
In the long run, however, knowing the meaning of an academic
word is knowing how to use it within an appropriate meaning
system. So the key achievement in word learning is knowing
where the word fits within its own meaning system and being able
to use it in a motivated way to take an active part in that particular
meaning system. (p700)

Natural language conversations with native English speakers,
linked to instructional exchanges, seem the best means for
stimulating the learning and the use of academic vocabulary
(Crandall, 1997; Singleton, 1997). (p704)

The best language learning environment in schools would
also develop students' critical language awareness. In the context
of this article, this would involve developing their critical awareness
ofthe use and functions of academic Graeco-Latin words. It is
certainly important for novice users to know that sometimes these
words can be used negatively, as instruments of unnecessary formality
or to exercise power (Corson, 1995). Making this critical
kind oflanguage awareness available to students would help strip
away some of the unwanted rules of use that these words have
acquired over time: rules of use that exclude people from interaction;
rules of use that create a high status for the word user that is
not justified by the context; and rules of use that offer a means of
language evaluation that is not required by the subject matter. (p710)

Notes:The comparative research framework, contrasting distinct groups by statistical significance tests, is examined for major epistemological and practical problems inherent in its usage with African-European (Black-White) groups.

The comparative research framework requires a statistical significance test
between any two groups, like race, sex, or treatment groups. Its epistemological
base as science rests on John Stuart Mills' method of difference
canon. Fundamentally, this canon "requires that the two groups be equated,
i.e., equal in all respects ... on relevant variables ... known or believed to
[have] influence" (Plutchik, 1974, p. 179). If the comparison groups are not
equated as specified in the canon, then the observed difference can only be
described; any attempt to interpret or otherwise address the meaning of the
difference, especially in terms of a presumed underlying construct, is epistemologically
baseless. There can be no meaning or interpretation given to the
difference, nor can causality be inferred.

Culture (Nobles, 1982) is defined as patterns for interpreting reality that give people a
general design for living, and consists of surface (e.g., folkways, language,
behavior, beliefs, values) and deep structures (ethos, worldview, ideology,
cosmology, axiology, ontology). Culture is important because it determines
the meaning attached to the observed facts. Surface structure differences
between Africans and Europeans would appear self-evident.

Three axioms are given regarding the proper and improper usage of the comparative research framework:
1. It is proper to make racial comparisons using the comparative
research framework when the racial groups are equated on all
relevant variables, especially that of culture (there is a caveat here
which will be introduced below);
2. It is improper if the racial groups are not equated on any relevant
variable to do more than describe or report the difference; and
3. Whenever constructs are employed in the research, culture will
be relevant.

For example, Ogletree (1976) has shown why locus of control may
not be an appropriate construct for African-Americans. Her argument mainly
deals with cultural surface structure differences that render the control
ideology thesis void.5 The cultural deep structure level might pose problems
for the achievement orientation construct which, in the Eurocentric way, may
include aspects of individualism and Machiavellianism; as opposed to the
collectivism and Maat (Carruthers, 1984; Hilliard, Williams, & Damali,
1987; Karenga, 1984) characteristic of the Africentric way.

Transubstantive error is defined as making a wrong and assumptive conclusion about the value of people and what they mean by looking at their surface behaviors. --
Byron Gafford and Wendy Mi-Shing Fong quoting Wade Nobles.
Dr. Nobles is a tenured professor in Black Studies at San Francisco State University and the executive director of the Institute for the Advanced Study of Black Family Life and Culture in Oakland. [Source]

It follows that all anti-essentialist arguments, especially those decrying soul or spirit, that arise out of Western-based discourse including modern-day social constructionism, are based in what Ryle (1949) called category mistakes and the African Psychology Institute (1982) called transubstantive error. These concepts refer to mistakes of meaning occurring when the phenomenon being studied is comprehended with a set of cognitions which do not parameterize it or to which it does not belong. [link]

transubstantation
tran·sub·stan·ti·a·tion
Noun:
1. (esp. in the Roman Catholic Church) The conversion of the substance of the Eucharistic elements into the body and blood of Christ
2. A change in the form or substance of something.

Wikipedia:
Epistemology (episteme), meaning knowledge, science, study of meaning, is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope (limitations) of knowledge. It addresses the questions:
What is knowledge?
How is knowledge acquired?
How do we know what we know?

Ontology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence or reality as such, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations. Traditionally listed as a part of the major branch of philosophy known as metaphysics, ontology deals with questions concerning what entities exist or can be said to exist, and how such entities can be grouped, related within a hierarchy, and subdivided according to similarities and differences.

Notes:The official discourse,
as has been communicated through the federal No Child Left Behind
Act of 2001 rhetoric and the concomitant focus on standards and
assessment, says that minority children, especially English language
learners (ELLs) must gain “standard” English language skills in an unreasonably
short time frame, while achieving on par with native English
speaking students in academic content areas.

Hawkins posit a view
of language, learning, and teaching that sees meanings and understandings
constructed not in individual heads, but as between
humans engaged in specific situated social interactions. p15

p17 We need to explore and identify
not only how our learners are coming to acquire new language
skills, but what forms of languages are represented and available
to them.

Norton (2000) defines identity as
"how a person understands his or her relationship to the world,
how that relationship is constructed across time and space, and
how the person understands possibilities for the future"

Situated identities only “work” if they are recognized
and taken up in the interaction p19

[Hawkins] realized that academic instruction, no matter how
well prepared, isn’t enough to ensure language learning and academic
competence for all students. And [she] saw how social status
affects participation, and how participation affords status and
access to more language and interaction. [Hawkins] came to see the
teachers’ role as managing the ecology, as opposed to designing
instruction, with the notion of "ecology" spanning not only the
classroom, but also the school day and all the activities therein. p21

What may differ for ELLs of all ages is the lack of access
to the privileged linguistic codes; greater variance in understandings
of what school, learning, and literacies mean and might look
like; different patterns of communication, interactions, beliefs,
and behaviors; and differing experiences with and exposures to
the natural and lived world. p22

[A teacher's] job, rather than "teaching English," is to offer students access
to the range of knowledge, abilities, and forms of language
(discourses) that will enable them to lay claim to the social
identities
that afford them a participant status in the social communities
of their choice, and to provide scaffolding (and a truly supportive
environment) for the attainment of these. p23

Throughout this article, data on one focal learner, Shoua, was
used as an exemplar of claims and theoretical constructs. Shoua’s home language was Hmong. She had been born in the
same town in which she now lived, and had even attended preschool
there. Shoua had no siblings
close to her own age, nor did she interact with age-level
peers outside of school. She also had little exposure to English
outside of school. She scored extremely low upon kindergarten
entrance on an assessment scale for English. She did, however,
display some communicative skills. She learned some of the other
children’s names fairly quickly, would physically position herself
next to them in centers or group activities and find ways to interact
with them using limited language, and could make simple
requests and commands. She seemed self-assured and socially
oriented. The data on Shoua helps to explicate how the framework
presented below can provide understandings of how classrooms
work to support and/or constrain language and academic
development for ELLs.

Valdes, G. (2004). Between Support and Marginalisation: The Development of Academic Language in Linguistic Minority Children. International Journal Of Bilingual Education And Bilingualism, 7(2), 102-132.

Abstract:
Within the last several years, researchers working with linguistic minority children
have focused increasingly on the development of the types of language proficiencies
that are required to perfonn successfully in academic contexts. Most practitioners
and researchers agree that, in order to succeed in schools, such learners must be
given the opportunity to acquire academic, rather than everyday, language. Unfortua
nately, in spite of the growing interest in the kind of language that will result in
school success, we currently lack a single definition Of even general agreement about
what is meant by academic language. This paper examines the conflicting definitions
and conceptualisations of academic language and argues that limited understandings
of bilingualism and of the linguistic demands made by academic interactions
will lead to the continued segregation of linguistic minority children even after they
have reached a level of stable bilingualism.

Notes:there is currently no agreed-upon definition of either academic
English or academic language in general. While this has been discouraging
and problematic for many researchers and practitioners within the
second-language leaching profession, what is significant is that a number of
related professions are engaging in the examination of what they understand
to be academic language and inquiring about its role in the school success of
all children.

In the case of academic English, the discussion of many significant and
important issues is taking place in a context in which the response of both the
community of scholarly specialists and members of the public (including spedal
interest organisations, news media, parents, teachers, administrators, policy
makers) are anticipated.

Hegemonic voices
argue for teaching the standard language to the underprivileged, while counter-
hegemonic voices argue that insisting on the standard will only continue
to maintain the position of the powerful who already speak the privileged
variety of the language. p14 ['standard language ideology']

Standard English as a highly charged notion

Learners: mainstream English, ESL (TESOL [college] & ESL [K-12])

For these individuals [e.g., some members of the writing and composition profession] academic language is primarily understood to mean that
language which is free of non-standard or stigmatised features.

The TESOL profession also sees academic languages
as a set of intellectual practices. Primarily, however, at the college level,
this profession is particularly focused on stylistic conventions that are part
of that practice (within particular professions), including text organisation,
presentation of iniormation, and grammar and usage. Importantly, the TESOL
College profession views its students as competent both academically and
linguistically in their first language and considers that the profession's role is
to help them to avoid discourse accent

The ESL profession that works with K-12 students, by comparison, focuses
on non-English background, immigrant students who enter American schools.
Much of the activity of this profession has been directed at the teachmg of
the structure of English to such youngsters as a preliminary to their learning
subject-matter through English.

This group of practitioners,
however, has focused almost exclusively on the development of what has been
called Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency or CALP which is considered to
be fundamentally different from BlCS, that is, from Basic Interpersonal
Communication Skills.

Very little attention has also been given by the L2 communities to the extensive
work that has been carried out on literacy as a social and cultural practice
(Cope & Kalantzis, 2000; Delpit, 1988; Edelsky, 1991; Gee, 1990; Rose, 1989;
Street, 1984; Walsh, 1991). The view that there are multiple literacies rather
than a single literacy, that these literacies depend on the context of the situation,
the activity itself, the interactions between participants, and the knowledge
and experiences that these various participants bring to these interactions
is distant from the view held by most L2 educators who still embrace a technocratic
notion of literacy and emphasise the development of decontextualised
skills.

In sum, positions about academic language in diverse learners that are held
by the different professional communities have developed and evolved in
communication with particular sets of voices that are a part of specific professional
worlds. In Bakhtinian terms (Bakhtin, [1986]1990: 91) utterances
within each professional world (must be regarded primarily as a response
to preceding utterances of the given sphere ... Each utterance refutes, affirms,
supplements, and relies on the others, presupposes them to be known and
somehow takes them into account'. p25

Unfortunately, as is evident to those who work with linguistic minority
students, that is, with both second language learners and speakers of nonstandard
varieties of the language, the increasing residential and academic
segregation in which these students find themselves offers few possibilities
for their participation in communication spheres where 'academic language is
used naturally and comfortably by those who, as Gee (1992: 33) has suggested,
have acquired it by 'enculturation (apprenticeship) into social practices
through scaffolded and supported interactions with people who have already
mastered the Discourse'. p31-32

I believe that what we need to do is to
imagine other possibilities. Like Guerra (1997: 258), we too must envision language
minority L2 writers who develop what he called 'intercultural literacy',
that is, 'the ability to consciously and effectively move back and forth among
as well as in and out of the discourse communities they belong to or will
belong to'. Even in middle school, we should want minority L2 writers to
understand that they too have something to say. p33